A crafty leg spinner, Alex Moir is best remembered for two bizarre acts on the cricket field. The first one happened when he bowled two continuous overs in a Test match in 1951, either side of the Tea break and that caused a lot of commotion. The other incident reflected Moir’s genuine sportsman spirit when he refused to run out a West Indian batsman after the latter had slipped on the pitch while attempting the run. He would have been short by yards but Moir wasn’t interested in effecting the dismissal. A energetic character off the field, the Otago man was an endearing personality among his teammates. As a bowler, Moir had the craft to endure a long Test career but faced constant competition from his State mate Jack Alabastar, and the opportunities got divided between the two. Even in the 17 Tests that the former played, he couldn’t gain the level of success that he had attained in First-class cricket. However, the two five-wicket hauls against England at home and the four-fer against Pakistan in Lahore were proof of his quality, one that didn’t have durability to survive in international cricket.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan